Windows 7 will not boot after sysprep

I am building an image of Windows 7 Enterprise edition. after creating a simple unattend file in WAIK. After running sysprep, when the machine boot up i get the following:

"Windows could not parse or process the unattend file for a pass [specialize]. The Setting specified in the answer file cannot be applied. The error was detected while processing settings for component [Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup]."

If i remove it the image will boot. The problem is i want to use that specialize option.

I also experienced a very similar issue and had to remove a particular piece of software to get the copyprofile command to work during sysprep in Windows 7 Enterprise. If you have the patience I actually recorded 2 videos showing success and failure of sysprep due to the software:

Sysprep failing with error: "Windows could not parse or process the unattended answer file for pass [specialize]."

I hope this helps as I have seen ALOT of posts about this error. I tried many many resolutions including rebuilding the XML answer file using different images, removing all accounts except administrator from User Manager, Registry, and from C:\Users all to no avail.

This worked! So lessons learned, it could be a piece of software preventing the copyprofile command from executing properly.

How were you able to tell if the issue related to that specific piece of software? That was interesting to see and I have alot more software loaded into my image than you do with the same specialize pass error.

Hello all first post here. I just spent a little time creating an image and ran sysprep to complete the image for deployment. However I am getting the Windows could not parse or process the unattend answer file for pass specialize..........yada yada yada same as above. I didn't create an image prior to running sysprep. Is there away to get back into Windows or am I looking a starting over?

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